The present invention generally relates to an apparatus for dispensing or spreading material, particularly to an apparatus for top dressing terrain, and specifically in a most preferred form to broadcast spreading top dressers.
Various apparatus exist for applying top dressing to the turf of golf courses, lawns, football, baseball and soccer fields, parks, recreational areas, and the like, for applying calcined clay on baseball diamonds, for sanding icy sidewalks and driveways, and for like applications of a ribbon of material at a preselected rate. Examples of such apparatus are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,873 which has been widely and very successfully marketed under the trademark TURFCO METE-R-MATIC and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,952 which has been widely and very successfully marketed under various trademarks. With the increasing awareness of the importance of top dressing in turf management, an increasing need exists for improved dispensers to allow the effective, efficient application of material with minimal damage to the turf and with increased ease of operation.
Specifically during top dressing of selected turfs especially but not limited to golf greens, it is necessary to spread the top dressing material in an equal amount and specifically without clumps or bunches where top dressing material is dispensed at a higher rate than at other locations. Top dressers of the drop type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,438,873 and 5,307,952 have been highly effective at applying top dressing evenly to turf. However, such drop top dressers only dispensed top dressing material across a width generally equal to the width of the top dresser itself. As top dressing often occurred during daylight, it was necessary to take the green out of play during the top dressing operation and thus the width of the dispensed top dressing material plays a major role in the number of passes required to top dress the green as well as the time required for the top dressing operation and the time that the green was out of play. Further, such drop top dressers were not very effective in spreading extremely minimal amounts of top dressing material.
Although broadcast spreaders are known for spreading seed and fertilizers, they have not penetrated the top dressing markets. In particular, prior commercially available broadcast spreaders typically utilized mesh type conveyors formed of hinged links formed of metal or similar material and forming an array of cells open at the top and bottom. Additionally, such broadcast spreaders were often driven by the power take off of the towing vehicle, with the spinners and conveyor being driven together. As a result, material was often present on the spinners at initiation of spinner rotation such that material was initially dispensed in a clump and specifically at least at a rate greater than under normal operating conditions. Thus, prior commercially available broadcast spreaders required a towing vehicle of considerable power and including a power take off, dispensed material in an amount greater than desired in a green top dressing function and unevenly at least at the start of spinner operation, and included high wear and low life conveyor components requiring frequent maintenance and repair.
Thus, a need continues to exist for the application of extremely minimal amounts of material to turf and in a manner to reduce the number of passes required to top dress a width of such turf and to reduce the amount of time needed to perform such top dressing.
This need and other problems in the field of top dressing are solved, in the most preferred form, by providing a top dresser including a hydraulic system having the valve for providing hydraulic fluid flow to the conveyor drive motor being in series downstream of the valve for providing hydraulic fluid flow to the spinner motors so that it is not possible to mistakenly run the conveyor without the spinners operating and so that it is possible to clean the spinners of top dressing material before additional material is dispensed from the hopper onto the spinners.
In other preferred aspects of the present invention, the top dressing material is conveyed to rotatable spinners by sheeting in the form of an endless belt located at the bottom of the hopper and having a relatively smooth outer surface including relatively small depressions of a size generally corresponding to the particle size of the top dressing material being dispensed.
In other preferred aspects of the present invention, the spinner assembly is removably mounted to the top dresser frame by a clip including a front plate for abutting with the rear face of a frame cross beam, a top plate for abutting with the top face of the frame cross beam, and a latching plate for abutting with the front face of the frame cross beam while the cross beam and clip are secured together by a pin member so that the top dresser can become a dump cart for hauling material.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a novel top dresser.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel top dresser for spreading extremely minimal amounts of top dressing material.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel top dresser for spreading top dressing material evenly including at initiation of the top dressing operation.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel top dresser of the broadcast type.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel top dresser allowing the spinners to be cleaned before additional material is dispensed from the hopper onto the spinners.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel top dresser where it is not possible to mistakenly dispense material from the hopper onto the spinners while the spinners are not rotating.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel top dresser including sheeting in the form of an endless belt having a relatively smooth outer surface for dispensing material from the hopper onto spinners.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide such a novel top dresser including a removably mounted spinner assembly so that the top dresser can become a dump cart for hauling material.
Surprisingly, all of the above objectives can be satisfied in the field of material dispensing by the illustrative embodiment of a top dresser according to the preferred teachings of the present invention, detailed descriptions of which are described in connection with the drawings.